Privacy and Societal Implications of RFID - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 65
About This Presentation
Title:

Privacy and Societal Implications of RFID

Description:

Privacy invasion and people tracking with RFID. Michelin is placing 'spy chips' in its tires. ... Wal-Mart and P&G conducted secret trials involving live ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:37
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 66
Provided by: baue6
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Privacy and Societal Implications of RFID


1
Privacy and Societal Implications of RFID
  • Katherine Albrecht
  • Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion
    and Numbering
  • (CASPIAN)

2
One-ness
3
The pressure is on businesses to comply
4
Weve had enough experiences with technology
gone awry.The time to discuss the implications
of RFID is now.
5
Used improperly, RFID has the potential to
jeopardize consumer privacy, reduce or eliminate
purchasing anonymity, and threaten civil
liberties.
6
Threats to Privacy and Civil Liberties
  • Hidden placement of tags.
  • Unique identifiers for all objects worldwide.
  • Massive data aggregation.
  • Hidden readers.
  • Individual tracking and profiling.

7
Threat 1 Hidden placement of tags
  • Integrated into cardboard boxes
  • Hidden in inaccessible location on product
  • Slipped between layers of paper
  • Sewn into clothing
  • Embedded in plastic
  • Printed onto product packaging
  • Seamlessly integrated into paper

8
A 6 tag is hard to hide.
9
Or is it? Hidden Sandwiched in cardboard
10
This tag (with a 17ft. read range) is easy to
spot, right?
11
Not when placed inside cap an inaccessible
location on this flip-top product
12
Another big tag (4.5)
Alien/RAFSEC S Tag
13
placed between layers of paper
Alien/RAFSEC S Tag in Bag
14
Tags can be sewn into clothing
15
Embedded in plastic
16
(No Transcript)
17
Printed onto product packaging
"The vision is to move from the etched, solid
metal antennas to the printed antennas." "Since
radio waves travel through most packaging
materials, packagers...could print the
antennainside of the box. They could laminate it
inside the package, or print it on the outside
and print over it." Dan Lawrence, Flint Ink
18
Tiny chips could be very hard to spot
19
And theyre getting smaller.
Hitachis mu-chip contrasted with grains of rice
20
They can be integrated into paper
Inkodes chipless tag Closeup of Inkode metal
fibers embedded in paper
21
More on chipless tags
  • The Inkode system involves embedding very tiny
    metal fibersthat reflect radio waves back to
    the reader, forming what Inkode calls a resonant
    signature. These can be converted into a unique
    serial number.
  • The tags can be read from less than an inch to
    10 feet away.
  • - RFID Journal 3/31/03

22
Threat 2 Unique identifiers for all objects
worldwide.
  • the EPC network is a new global standard for
    immediate, automatic identification of any item
    in the supply chain of any company, in any
    industry, in the world. - EPCGlobal

23
The Auto-ID Center and EPCGlobal have developed a
system they hope will tag every manufactured item
on Earth with a unique ID
24
Soon these chips could appear on every Coke can
In answer to a questionabout whether Coca-Cola
is REALLY interested in uniquely identifying a
single can of Coke among billions, Michael
Okoroafor, in charge of technical solutions for
Coca-Cola replied with a resounding YES! -
IDTechEx Magazine 2003
25
and on every pack of gum
Alien envisions conductive ink being mixed
with regular packaging ink to create antennas on
boxes of cereal and other disposable packaging
"With these things you could literally tag a pack
of chewing gum. - Jacobsen, Alien Technology
26
Threat 3 Massive data aggregation.
  • DARPA, Homeland Security, and other Federal and
    state law enforcement agencies hope to
    consolidate consumer purchase data in centralized
    databases

27
Threat 4 Hidden readers.
Reader devices can be invisibly embedded in
  • Counters
  • Shelving
  • Furniture
  • Consumer products
  • Printers
  • Copiers
  • Vacuum cleaner
  • Handheld, i.e., in a backpack
  • Walls
  • Doorways
  • Floor tiles
  • Carpeting
  • Floor mats
  • Vehicles
  • Roads
  • Sidewalks

28
Shelving the photo-snapping Gillette smart
shelf
29
The Auto-ID Centers vision of shelf surveillance
30
Gillette product packaging
31
Currently, RFID enables silent commerce.
  • Consumers dont know where it is.

32
Threat 5 Individual tracking and profiling.
33
Retailers want to identify and target shoppers.
  • Surprisingly, many (if not most) retail POS
    systems currently link bar code information with
    consumer identity
  • Much customer data captured at POS is sold and
    shared -- both legally and illegally

34
Loyalty cards are a huge potential RFID market
  • "...the ability to read and record a cardholders
    movement as they move through a retail or
    hospitality environment can be appealing to
    retailers or marketers desiring to know the
    habits or preferences of their customers.
  • - Intellitag promotional copy, 2003

35
The card in your wallet could transmit data about
you
36
What did you do today? Privacy invasion and
people tracking with RFID.
37
Michelin is placing spy chips in its tires.
38
(No Transcript)
39
Are our bodies next?
40
Why are Humans listed on this slide?
41
The Verichip implant (short read range)
42
(No Transcript)
43
Consumers wonder Whos guarding the henhouse?
  • Scandals in 2003
  • Broken Arrow. Wal-Mart and PG conducted secret
    trials involving live consumers, then tried to
    cover it up
  • Gillette Spy Shelf. Gillette caught taking
    mugshots of unsuspecting customers with shelf
    cameras, then shifted responsibility to partner
    Tesco
  • Brockton Wal-Mart Trial. Gillette and Wal-Mart
    both denied existence of smart shelf until
    CASPIAN provided photos to the press.
  • Auto-ID Center Confidential Documents. PR
    strategy involved conveying the inevitability
    of RFID, pacifying consumers, and relying on
    consumer apathy
  • Non-Response to Information Requests. CASPIANs
    three questions letter sent twice -- has gone
    unanswered to this date.
  • Benetton/Philips. Benetton misled consumers about
    its clothing tracking chip, telling them the
    chips could be killed at checkout

44
Wal-Mart / PG Lipfinity Trial
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Wal-Mart and PG
conducted a 4-month secret RFID experiment using
live consumers. Distant PG executives used a
video camera trained on the shelf to observe
shoppers. Both Wal-Mart and PG repeatedly denied
the trials until evidence was produced.
45
Public Policy Committee Members not Notified of
Trials
46
Gillette / Tesco Smart Shelf Trial
Great Britain Gillette was caught taking mugshots
of unsuspecting customers using RFID-triggered
shelf cameras. Gillette initially denied the
trials, then shifted responsibility to partner
Tesco. The Auto-ID Center never acknowledged its
involvement.
47
The Brockton Trial never admitted
Brockton, MA Wal-Mart and Gillette both denied
existence of a smart shelf in the Brockton
Wal-Mart until CASPIAN provided photos to the
press. Both companies then claimed the test never
went live.
The Gillette smart shelf tested by an Auto-ID
Center researcher
48
Auto-ID Centers Confidential Documents Revealed
  • CASPIAN obtained confidential documents from
    the Auto-ID Centers unsecured website. The
    Centers confidential PR strategy was found to
    include pacifying consumers, conveying the
    inevitability of RFID technology, and relying
    on consumer apathy.

49
Non-Response to Information Requests
The three questions,CASPIAN asked the Auto-ID
Center Board of Overseers on July 9, 2003 were
never answered
  • What consumer products are currently being
    individually tagged with RFID devices? What
    products have been tagged in the past?
  • What retail stores are selling or have sold
    RFID-tagged items to consumers? Please provide
    specific store location information.
  • Where can consumers get details about information
    collected when they interact with RFID-tagged
    items at these locations? For example, are
    consumers being tracked, videotaped, or
    photographed?

50
Benetton/Philips clothing tagging controversy
Tags could not be killed as promised In March
2003, Philips announced that Benetton would
incorporate its RFID tags into the labels of the
Sisley line of clothing, a line consisting
primarily of womens undergarments. After an
international outcry, Benetton told consumers the
tags could be killed at checkout. Philips
documentation revealed the tags could only be
made dormant.
51
Dont think it could get worse?
  • Because
  • Read-range distances are not sufficient to allow
    for consumer surveillance.
  • Reader devices not prevalent enough to enable
    seamless human tracking.
  • Limited information contained on tags.
  • Passive tags cannot be tracked by satellite.
  • High cost of tags make them prohibitive for
    wide-scale deployment.

52
MYTH
  • Read-range distances are not sufficient to allow
    for consumer surveillance.

53
Read Range 915 MHz Tags
54
MYTH
  • Reader devices not prevalent enough to enable
    seamless human tracking

55
MYTH
  • Limited information contained on tags.

56
MYTH
  • Passive tags cannot be tracked by satellite.

57
MYTH
  • High cost of tags make them prohibitive for
    wide-scale deployment.

58
Some Proposed Industry Solutions
  • Killing tags at point of sale
  • Blocker tags
  • Closed system

59
Principles of Fair Information Practice
  • Openness, or transparency
  • Purpose specification
  • Collection limitation
  • Accountability
  • Security Safeguards

60
RFID Practices that Should be Flatly Prohibited
  • Merchants must be prohibited from forcing or
    coercing customers into accepting live or dormant
    RFID tags in the products they buy.
  • There should be no prohibition on individuals to
    detect RFID tags and readers and disable tags on
    items in their possession.

61
RFID Practices that Should be Flatly Prohibited
(continued)
  • RFID must not be used to track individuals absent
    informed and written consent of the data subject.
    Human tracking is inappropriate, either directly
    or indirectly, through clothing, consumer goods,
    or other items

62
RFID Practices that Should be Flatly Prohibited
  • RFID should never be employed in a fashion to
    eliminate or reduce anonymity.
  • For instance, RFID should never be
    incorporated into currency.

63
Conclusions
  • We request manufacturers and retailers toagree
    to a voluntary moratorium on the item-level RFID
    tagging of consumer items until a formal
    technology assessment process involving all
    stakeholders, including consumers, can take
    place.

64
Conclusions
  • Further, the development of this technology
    must be guided by a strong set of Principles of
    Fair Information Practice, ensuring that
    meaningful consumer control is built into the
    implementation of RFID.

65
(No Transcript)
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com